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PURCHASE BOOK


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PURCHASE BOOK

Ed Willows

Ruth's living history project continues with an interview with her dad, Ed Willows. 

Part I

Ruth: Today I’m talking with my dad, Ed Willows. He’s is an engineer with the Colorado Department of Transportation and he’s the only member of the Willows family to be born here in Golden Valley.
Ed: Well, actually honey I was born in Pueblo.
Ruth: What? You always say you are Golden Valley born and raised.
Ed: That’s just a saying. Your Uncle Robbie was born in the GV hospital, but I was early and kept my mom in Pueblo for a few days.
Ruth: Ugh, just tell me the story.
Ed: It was a few weeks before Christmas and your grandma was visiting her Aunt and Uncle who lived in Pueblo. She knew she wouldn’t get out to see them for the holidays after I was born. That afternoon it started to snow and she called my dad she to say she was about to come home.

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He told her to stay. The storm was coming from the south west and the roads south of Pueblo were already being closed.
She stayed that night with her aunt and uncle. By noon the roads were clear, but Mom wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to drive. Her aunt was going to drive her home, but decided to wait till her husband came home from some errands so he could drive her back. Well, Uncle Miller could talk a hind leg off a donkey, and by the time he got back to the house, Mom realized she was in labor. They took her to the hospital, and I was born two weeks early in Pueblo.
Ruth: So born in Pueblo, raised in Golden Valley. What was it like growing up here (in GV)? What kind of stuff did you do?
Ed: A lot has changed in the world in general, but a lot is still the same here. Golden Valley has, what, a population of fifteen thousand residents. It depends on who’s definition you’re looking at, but I’d consider us a small town.
A lot of the same stores are open on Merchant Street today that where there when I was a kid. A lot of them have changed.

I hung out with friends, hiked in the forest, went to the same swimming hole you and your sister go to. I had to work the ranch everyday (Ed grimaced), but being a Boy Scout I got to travel and do a lot and camping and fun stuff.
Ruth: I know you didn’t LOVE, so why did you come back?
Ed: No, I didn’t love it, not the way your Grand-daddy and Robbie loved it. I down right hated it some times, especially after we lost Robbie.
Ruth: Grand-daddy told me all about that. Were you and Uncle Robbie close growing up?
Ed: We were brothers. We fought – a lot. But we loved each other. He’d do anything for me. That’s just the type of person he was. (Ed laughs) One time, I was little, maybe five or six, we had been playing Cowboys and Indians all day, even while doing chores. Robbie was older, so he was always the cowboy and I always had to be an Indian who was trying to steal the horses. And he would always save the day. That night, before we went to bed I told him that I was gonna be the cowboy tomorrow. He just laughed at me.

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Ruth: Why
Ed: He said that I couldn’t be the cowboy because I couldn’t beat him up.
Ruth: Could you have?
Ed: Heck no, but I shoved him as hard as I could. Then he beat me up and tied me, AND left me tied up in my parents bedroom for them to find me.
Ruth: What did you do?
Ed: I think I fell asleep.
Ruth: What did they do?
Ed: Probably untied me and told me to go to bed.
Ruth: What did they do to your brother?
Ed: Oh, I don’t remember sweetie. I was little. But I never asked to be the cowboy again.
Part 2 of Ruth's Interview with her dad, Ed Willows is coming soon.

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© Created by Heywood Paige

All rights Reserved

© Created by Heywood Paige

All rights Reserved